Vanilla Eyes? Stop, collaborate, and listen
Have you ever found yourself staring at a blinking cursor on a blank screen? Writer’s block is the worst. And when your job is to write copy or create content, you have to make creative ways to be, well, creative.
Steve Jobs famously said, “creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative
people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t
really do it, they just saw something.”
Steve Jobs
I guess you have been down a few internet wormholes, hoping to see something to inspire you. Maybe you are a writer too, or the person who gets stuck doing blogs/ social posts/ emails (because no one else wants to). However you got here, this list aims to wake up your senses with some metaphorical ‘plungers’ for your ‘oh sh*t’ writer’s block moments.
# 1 Touchy Subject
We all know touch is vital for well-being, right? It helps us to show warmth and compassion. It even influences our decision-making. If you have a cat or a dog at home, show it some love. There is a reason animal therapy exists!
According to a study by the University of California, Berkeley, Brits aren’t too good at contact with other humans. And a freelance copywriter’s working life is often lonely, to be honest. I am not much of a hugger anyway, preferring metaphorical pats on the back. Fortunately, we don’t always need other people to fire up the neurons.
Different receptors in the skin pick up pressure, pain, vibration, and temperature. According to psychologists at Harvard University and Yale University, even touching something with a texture can influence a person’s decisions. Joshua Ackerman, Assistant Professor of marketing at MIT, says,
“Tactile sensations are not just changing general orientation or putting people in a good mood…They have a specific tie to certain abstract meanings.”
I love the feeling I get when I hold a steaming hot cup of coffee, even better on a crisp autumn walk with my feet wrapped in fleecy wellie liners. But I cannot bear the feeling of velvet or bristle brushes on my skin – they make me shudder. And feelings of disgust, as much as pain, still trigger the fight or flight response.
So find your textural nemesis or nirvana and feel something. It will change your mindset.
#2 Play with your food
You can also trigger sensations of pleasure and disgust through the food you eat, and everyone has a unique palate. I HATE coriander, but I LOVE basil. I read a few years ago in the New York Times that this was a lack of evolution on my part. So my tastebuds perceive soapy coriander leaves as poison. Because they are? Clearly?
My instinctive hatred of coriander and my fight or flight response come from my Reptilian brain. I also like to wake up my paleomammalian (or old mammal) brain by eating nostalgic treats. If I am staying away on business, I’d rather have a bowl of Coco Pops for breakfast. It makes adulting feel more playful.
An article published in September 2022 by Dr. Xu specifically links sweet tastes with creativity.
She says it’s due to,
“the associations that people have developed with the sweet taste experience…[like] during celebrations (e.g. birthdays), or family/friends gatherings…in old times, people tried to use taste to differentiate whether a food was toxic or not, so sweet food signals safety, energy, and non-toxic.”
Most people have a favourite dish – either to eat or to cook. But what if you changed something about it? Would you make it better than ever? Or just plain wrong? Either way, it forces you to think differently, and critically. You may also ‘enjoy’ feedback from those around you as a result.
If I’m feeling bored, I like to make eating fun. Sometimes that results in food art for my kids or only eating food that begins with the same letter for a day. Some of these are dark days, but C is indulgent if you choose wisely. W is mainly a drinking day unless you cheat with Huevos Rancheros (thanks Covid homeschool phonics).
#3 Nothing to sniff at
When you smell, the olfactory bulb in your brain triggers emotions and memories. The smell of coffee makes me feel like I am waking up and ready to go. When my daughter eats parma violets, the smell transports me to my lovely Nan’s Yardley April Violets soap. She, in turn, hated the scent of lavender, which reminded her of the room in which her sister died.
Apparently, with ageing, your sense of smell weakens. But you can do something about it, according to olfactive expert Dawn Goldworm.
She explains,
“Your nose is like a muscle in the body that can be strengthened by giving it a daily workout.” When you are walking down the street, consciously indicate what you are smelling … the more you use [your nose], the stronger it gets.”
Whether you’ve got full-blown writer’s block, or your ideas just stink, get outside in the fresh air, or put the kettle on.
#4 Sound advice
Daniel J Levitin has written about the impact of music on your brain.
He says,
“It involves a precision choreography of neurochemical release and uptake between logical prediction systems and emotional reward systems. When we love a piece of music, it reminds us of other music we have heard, and it activates memory traces of emotional times in our lives. Your brain on music is all about…connections.”
I hear ambient noise levels are better for creative thinking than silence or loud rock. I find I get my best ideas in a morning shower. The rest of the time, I like a little background buzz to take the edge off the silence.
If you want to imagine you are in a pre-2020 real office with people IRL, you can listen to several ASMR office soundtracks on youtube, like this one.
Or even the sounds of soft play if you need to write some dark material.
#5 Sites: IRL vs. URL
You can find nearly anything online, but if you want to feel something, you’ve got to get out there. There is a lot to be said about travel, but even walking around your local area can open your mind. Take a new path you haven’t followed before. Follow a public footpath fingerpost. Go on a copy safari. See what other writers are playing with. Let your curiosity take the reins – doing something out of your routine stimulates your natural curiosity.
Inspiration can come from the least inspiring places. Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler might have had writer’s block when he wrote the lyrics for the hit song ‘Money for Nothing’ in a TV store, based on a conversation he overheard between employees watching MTV.
Some of it is allegedly word-for-word,
“Look at them yo-yos, that’s the way you do it/ You play the guitar on the MTV/ That ain’t workin’, that’s the way you do it/ Money for nothing, and chicks for free.”
– Mark Knopfler
Or try working from somewhere else – the beauty of being freelance means the world is your lobster. As a copywriter in the midlands, I am lucky to have beautiful Derbyshire on my doorstep.
I like to start my day getting off the school-run hamster wheel and enjoying twenty minutes of nature and fresh air. According to a scientific study, a little bit of green or greenery can improve your creativity. When I get home, I am ready to go.
Experiments have shown that chaotic environments can aid creativity – but when my house was a cluttered building site, my mind was too. I like to balance a tidy digital filing system, with a messy desk, in a tidy house, with a lot of natural light.
#6 Sixth Sense
Just seeing if you were paying attention.
#7 Defying gravity
The vestibular, or gravity, sense controls our balance and movement, and gravity is one of the greatest forces in the universe. What do you have without it? Gravy. (Can’t beat a #dadjoke )
Movement and exercise help us to think better. Repetitive aerobic exercise, like running or cycling, has a natural rhythm your brain enjoys. You can enjoy a rush of dopamine and endorphins and remove chemicals that make you feel stressed. Or apparently, Yoga is a great way to clear your mind and lift your mood, so long as you don’t giggle. Or fart. And then giggle.
Einstein famously thought of his Special Theory of Relativity while riding his bicycle. Neurologists have looked into why cycling can induce an almost meditative state, and it seems to be about rhythm.
In repetitive aerobic sports like cycling, swimming, running, and cross-country skiing, rhythm has been shown to have a regulatory effect on the brain. It has even been used as a treatment for people with some medical conditions, like Parkinson’s. I had an epiphany once, cross-country skiing in Norway, and ended a long-term relationship. And yes, it was an awkward 10-hour journey home.
Why not try a regular lunchtime walk or bike ride, and write down the first five words in your head as soon as you walk back through the door? You could even try to make a poem out of them. Exercise clears the mind like nothing else.
#8 Spaced out
Proprioception helps your brain understand where your body is in space and determines how coordinated or clumsy you are. Can you pat your head and rub your tummy? Do you have to look at steps as you climb them, even when wine isn’t involved?
If you often bash and bruise yourself moving around your home, exercise might not do it for you. But you can still stimulate your hippocampus and unlock creativity in your copywriting through play.
Buy a cheap puzzle book, enter One Minute Briefs, visit a computer museum or dig out your old Gameboy. The sounds of powering up plumbers will take you back to your childhood when your creativity was safe from thoughts of electricity bills and online grocery deliveries.
My favourite single-player games: Pitcherwits, Sudoku, Cryptic Crosswords, Tetris
Looking at a problem from a new perspective means you access different parts of your brain, which might help you take a fresh look at your subject. These sorts of games have restrictions – so you still have to find a solution and stick it out until you do, forcing you to think differently.
If you have any other freelance, retired, or student friends and family you can rope in, try something for two players:
Two+ player ideas: Chess, Charades, Hide and Seek, Escape Rooms
Or, just (don’t) do it
You know the phrase ‘nothing is original’, right? Counter-intuitive as this sounds, sometimes doing nothing, like absolutely nothing, works. Life can be pretty hectic, and sometimes trying too hard can be creatively draining.
So, if you are a copywriter with writer’s block, remember you are not alone.
As I told my son after he swallowed his wobbly tooth, THIS TOO(th) SHALL PASS.
Make a start.
From little acorns, chubby squirrels grow.
